Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe were back together Friday for one of their son’s biggest days, reuniting at Deacon Phillippe’s graduation from New York University at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The former couple posed for photos with Deacon after the ceremony, with family members gathering around the 22-year-old as he marked the end of his college years.
Witherspoon, 51, wore a blue midi dress with a white blazer, a cream handbag and heels. Phillippe, 50, showed up in a white button-down shirt, black trousers and Nike sneakers. Ava Phillippe, the pair’s 26-year-old daughter, also attended, along with Witherspoon’s ex-husband Jim Toth, who is the father of her 13-year-old son, Tennessee. Kate Hudson’s eldest son, Ryder Robinson, was also among the New York University graduates on Friday, while Kurt Russell was seen chatting with and hugging Witherspoon at the ceremony.
The reunion carried a familiar rhythm for Witherspoon and Phillippe, who were married from 1999 to 2008 and have continued to co-parent their two children over the years. They first met at Witherspoon’s 21st birthday party in 1997 and went on to co-star in Cruel Intentions two years later, a pairing that helped define an era for both of them. Phillippe has also made clear that the connection has never entirely disappeared; in a 2024 Instagram Stories post, he wrote that they were hot together in late ’90s angst and added that it was a much cooler time than today.
This was not the first milestone they have shared for Deacon. Witherspoon and Phillippe reunited for his homeschool graduation in 2022, and Phillippe shared photos from Deacon’s album release party in April 2023 for A New Earth. The family has kept turning up for one another even after Witherspoon married Jim Toth in 2011 and divorced him in 2023, and after Phillippe had a daughter, Kai, now 14, with Alexis Knapp. Friday’s ceremony at Radio City Music Hall showed that, for this family, the public break years ago has long since given way to something steadier: a working, visible truce that keeps showing up when it matters.
